“How about this one?” Minjoo’s father asks her hesitantly while holding up a beige suit.

Minjoo just groans in exasperation and shakes her head sadly.

“Dad, you’re hopeless.”

“You sound just like your mother,” her father grumbles as he puts the suit back in its place.

They’ve been shopping for quite a while now, but things just took so much longer when your father was absolutely hopeless with fashion. He needed some new clothing, particularly suits and such, but everything he picked out looked terrible. Minjoo will not allow her dad to go out dressed like that.

“That’s because we both know the truth,” she shoots back and directs him to a much more stylish choice.

“Here!”

She piles on three different suits into his arms, pushing him towards the fitting room. This should be the last of today’s shopping trip.

“I’m only doing this because I love you,” he grumbles as he enters the dressing room.

“Shoo!”

Minjoo laughs at the grumpy, pouty look on her father’s face.

God, she really does love him.

But his sense of fashion seriously needs some work.

~~~

It wasn’t unusual for Chaewon’s father to call her into his office, but she could tell something was up looking at how he was quietly standing next to the window even as she loudly came in.

“What is it?” She asks with a bit of irritation in her voice.

He allows silence to hang in the air for a bit.

“Sit down.”

Perhaps it was a better idea to comply with his order, but Chaewon decides to do the opposite.

“Why? Did something happen?” She asks, knowing that he seemed a bit off right now.

“I said sit down!” He yells suddenly with his back still turned to her.

Finally, she complies. She normally wouldn’t be this snarky, this bold, but she’s been feeling a bit stronger lately.

After she sits down, her father settles in his own seat across from her with his hands folded atop the desk. There’s a loud sigh before he begins speaking.

“That girl.”

Well, looks like he’s getting straight to the point. Chaewon’s eyes widen a fraction at the mention of who was most likely Minjoo.

“What girl?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Chaewon. The girl you’ve been with, the girl that’s made you weak.”

She gulps.

“Oh, don’t look so frightened!” He sneers.

“I just wanted to let you know that I am very much keeping close watch on you. You’ve been out of line lately, Chaewon. We can’t have that.”

He looks at her straight in the eye and draws a thumb across his neck in a slicing motion.

“Don’t you dare!” Chaewon screams, slamming her hands against the table.

“Relax, I was only joking!” He exclaims as he rolls his eyes. It was too obvious how much Chaewon cared for the girl, no matter how hard she tries to hide it. Truly, the girl was affecting her.

“But watch yourself, Chaewon,” he coldly states.

“That girl is making you weak.”

~~~

She has trouble catching her breath. Chaewon trudged back to her apartment after the conversation with her father, lost in thought. Worry plagued her mind, and she was fearing the worst. Surely, he wouldn’t hurt Minjoo, right?

Slouching against the door, she tries to fight all the fears going through her mind.

I have to keep her safe.

~~~

“That guy was totally gross.”

“Agreed,” Minjoo responded while shivering for effect.

Minjoo had been with Yujin for the afternoon as the two went out to eat together. Earlier, some sleazy man had tried hitting on Yujin much to the disgust of both girls. Clearly, Minjoo encountered far too many disgusting men. At least now they were at Yujin’s place, so they were theoretically protected from any such men.

“Don’t like men too much anyways,” Yujin grimaced and shivered as well.

“After my last boyfriend, me neither.”

“High five for being single!” Yujin exclaims as she enthusiastically holds her hand up with a grin.

Minjoo laughs and meets her hand in the middle. She had been spending a lot of time with Yujin lately; she found that the two of them got along well. The girl was always open to go out and never turned down an invitation unless she already had prior commitments. Laughing and smiling came easily around her, and for that she was grateful.

“At least we have each other.”

Yujin smiles widely, showing her dimples.

“Absolutely.”

~~~

Chaewon normally had a little bit of trouble sleeping, but this was much different than anything she’d dealt with before. Frequent nightly visitors consisted of ghosts from her past, not letting her drift off to sleep, but currently she found herself thinking about… other things.

Oh god, what is happening to me?

Images of Minjoo’s smile flashed through her mind along with the memories of them together. Her pinky tingled where Minjoo had lightly grasped it before while pouting cutely.

AHHHHHHHHHH.

She was going insane. She was sure of it. Never in her life has she succumbed to such fluffy emotions. Minjoo had torn down her walls far too quickly and it was driving her crazy. She wasn’t supposed to let this happen. As Minjoo tried to stay away from her for obvious reasons early on, Chaewon had remained aloof for her own reasons too. She knew she was dangerous in more ways than one, but she never thought that she would care so much about what that meant for someone else.

All of the blush-inducing thoughts swarming through her head was suddenly interrupted by her father’s words from earlier.

Her heart clenched painfully.

I can’t let anything happen to her.

~~~

Calling and/or texting Chaewon was much easier now--not easy, but definitely not as difficult to do as before. In fact, she had managed to successfully bring Chaewon out yet again; this time, Minjoo had just asked if she wanted to go for a walk.

Coincidentally, Minjoo also happened to be in front of Chaewon’s apartment complex.

Coincidentally.

So here she was, waiting for Chaewon to make her way down. Honestly, she found it a bit surprising that Chaewon always responded to her so quickly. Chaewon had actually gotten off work a bit ago, so she just got back to her place.

I need to visit her at work one of these days.

She’s reminded of the first, last, and only time she had ever seen Chaewon at the bar she worked at. Although, it’s not like she remembers much from that night due to the copious drinks she consumed.

Minjoo smiles at the memory. Well, more so the memory of the next morning when she wakes up to a stranger’s apartment. Looking back, all of their encounters were quite funny.

As she waits for Chaewon to come down, she laughs quietly to herself.

And now I have her coming out to take a walk with me? Talk about development.

~~~

Minjoo smiled and waved once their gazes met.

“I did take a shower, so I should smell significantly less like alcohol, smoke, and disgustingness,” Chaewon said proudly while gesturing towards her newly-cleansed body.

As they talked, Minjoo noticed how Chaewon’s eyes would dart around every now and then; she seemed a little more on edge than usual. A part of her wanted to ask, but the other part of her was afraid of the answer.

“You okay? You seem a little tense,” Minjoo asked worriedly.

Chaewon scratched her neck and smiled (was I being that obvious?).

“I’m fine, “ Chaewon reassured her and tried to relax herself a bit more. She didn’t want to make Minjoo worry even though it looks like she already is.

Although, if nothing else, Chaewon found that she was smiling really easily; that was definitely not part of her attempt to seem fine.

Minjoo just seemed to have that effect on her.

Before Minjoo could question her further, she pulls on Minjoo’s sleeve and starts walking. As soon as she lets go, Minjoo doesn’t waste a beat as she grabs hold of Chaewon’s hand.

Although she doesn’t press her further, Chaewon chuckles a little bit at the look she gives her and the squeeze of her hand.

Guess I can’t fool her.

~~~

Minjoo is becoming increasingly worried at the way Chaewon has been acting. At first, it wasn’t too bad, but now she was constantly on edge and jumped at every little thing. A few times, she had even pulled Minjoo into an alleyway while looking back and forth intently. Each time, she would laugh and brush it off, but something was definitely up and it was only getting worse.

“Hey, Yujin,” she asks the girl lounging beside her on the couch.

“Yeah?”

“What do you do if someone you care about starts acting weirdly and won’t tell you why and/or denies it?”

“Have you asked?”

“Well, not really… Not that seriously, at least.”

“Maybe you should sit them down and have a serious conversation about it? It sounds like you have to be very insistent with this person in order for them to open up.”

Minjoo sighs as she ponders Yujin’s suggestion which isn’t a bad one at all. She’s thought about talking to Chaewon about it, but the most she’s done is ask if she was okay (she definitely wasn’t). It was making her worry. A lot.

“Yeah, I guess. I’ll talk to them later. Thanks Yujinie,” Minjoo smiles as she gives Yujin a big hug from the side.

Yujin snorts and half-heartedly returns the hug with a gentle smile.

“Anytime.”

~~~

After a bit of consideration, she decides to confront Chaewon about it--whatever “it” is. She decides to stop by Chaewon’s apartment later and talk to her there. It was hard to ignore how odd she had been acting recently, and if something was bothering Chaewon, she wanted to know about it. She wanted to be there for her.

Before that, though, she has to stop by her parent’s house to check on her father and his… fashion, if one could even call it that. He mentioned some shoes and ties that he had hidden somewhere at the house that he thought would go well with his new attire, but she definitely had to confirm herself.

Minjoo snorts at the thought of her father and his poor sense of fashion.

How lucky he is to have a daughter like me.

As she approaches the house, she feels a sudden shiver course through her body.

Something’s wrong.

The hand that reaches for the doorknob is shaking, but she doesn’t waver.

Pushing the door open, she’s greeted by a sight that sends a chill straight to her heart.

It can’t be…

No matter how long she spends staring at the scene, she is unable to process the image of Chaewon standing over her father’s battered body.